all the ways that we fell in love
by funk-tastic
Summary: edwin, 100 themes. theme 7, glitter: her brand of devious is the worst kind.
1. nightly regime

Hey everyone! I'm going to try to destroy my writer's block and challenge myself by writing one theme per day (and it's summer now so... nothing else to do!). I'm just trying to improve as much as possible, so feedback is most certainly appreciated. Enjoy~

**prompt: beauty **

* * *

At first, he really doesn't understand why she feels the need to keep such rigorous practices. At only thirteen she balks at the thought of going to sleep without at least washing her face first (and putting on all these different lotions and creams that are apparently beneficial); Ed didn't take her for the kind of girl to worry over something that he considers so petty. He teases her one evening -when he and Al are stopped back in their hometown for a repair.

"I don't want zits," she huffs, indignant, before poking his cheek (which, he notes bitterly, is less smooth than hers).

"Zits aren't that bad," he huffs back at her, but he is strangely silent for the rest of the evening.

Al doesn't mention it, but he notices his brother's beauty habits follow suit.


	2. crush

**prompt: crush **

* * *

Winry detests the word crush. Not for other people, necessarily, because she guesses that it might fit. But not for her.

She knows how she feels about Ed. Anyone else might slip up and call it a crush; Garfiel does once, in fact, and she has to internally fight off the blush on her cheeks and explain that she does not have a crush on Edward Elric.

"So what is it then?" he finally asks, prodding -though cautiously- for more information.

"It's... he's very important to me," she finally answers back, and then, hastily: "They both are!"

But she knows that the way she feels about Al is very, _very _different and very distinctively brotherly. She can't say the same for the other Elric boy. Still, she won't call it a crush, no matter what she feels, simply because she's always thought of crushes as a come and go, like a fast summer thunderstorm that passes through in a flash and a bang, and then leave almost as quickly as they came.

And she knows better than to expect this feeling to go away anytime soon.


	3. the sound of settling

**prompt: silence**

* * *

The ring of his laughter can fill up a room, and the sounds of his anger can fill the whole house. Even when she yells at him (_you can't give up, now is not the time to start doubting yourself) _she prefers this over the stillness that the brothers have left here, in her childhood home, for the last four years.

"You don't know when to shut up," he finally says, and slams the door behind him.

The silence that he leaves in his wake is deafening.


	4. fragile

**prompt: fragile**

* * *

They come home to her.

At first she doesn't know what to say; she starts to scold them for not calling first, but the words get stuck. Her eyes water. Her heart races. They are under her in an instant, arms wrapped tight around her waist, laughing and smiling. Den barks at them, his own welcome home sounding throughout the country air.

The days that follow are a delicate balancing act, a difficult but worthwhile period of retraining themselves to be a trio again. Al is unused to feeling the warmth of Winry's hugs, Ed isn't sure how to manage the sight of her smile. Winry watches them bond closer and closer with one another and her heart leaps for joy when her boys offer her bits of their affection; a kiss on the cheek from Alphonse and Edward's hand on her head.

As fragile as their dynamic seems to be, it grows stronger every single day.


	5. love

**prompt: love**

* * *

There is no easy way to admit that you have it bad for your best friend. None at all, at least as far as Edward Elric is concerned, and even with everyone's (usually not helpful) suggestions he is left struggling with this pit in his stomach and this hideous uneasiness when he thinks about being in love with Winry. It's not that it feels wrong.

No, it feels really good sometimes, makes his stomach lift and his nerves flare in excitement even though his share of action and adventure has largely passed. Even Al has noticed how his eyes follow her and his voices gets soft and he smiles when he doesn't mean to. Even Al, and with all the rehabilitation, Al has plenty to do besides watch his brother make a fool of himself.

But what about the other sometimes, where it doesn't feel good? There's that nasty, hollow ache in his chest (he refuses to call it what it is... longing, because it sounds like something from a penny novel) which he suffers through gamely, even though it robs him of sleep that he really wants to catch up on. But hell, he tosses and turns and wants to touch her, and tell her that that she's someone special, but the words stick and sound awful in his throat. And what if she doesn't like him back? What then?

He finally settles on the idea that this is his life now: fucking infatuated, and nothing to do about it.


	6. together

sorry i've been MIA... but my laptop has been fritzy lately and so i was having trouble getting on to write anything. but it's all good now so hopefully i'll be able to make up the lost time!

**prompt: together**

* * *

Under the stars in Resembool, everything seems somehow more brilliant and lovely.

So maybe that was part of Al's plan all along: to get the three of them outside and then mysteriously "head back inside for a drink of water" that ended up lasting almost a half a hour. Either way, Winry found herself alone with Ed, sitting in the grass and making small talk to get away from her sudden onslaught of anxiety.

They run out of things to say only five minutes in, and despite the fact that they have talked for hours before they are strangely without words.

In ten minutes, she notices his fingers edging closer to where her hand is splayed on the ground. In fifteen minutes, she feels them tangling in her own.

In twenty minutes, they are holding hands somehow, watching lightening bugs flit around in the early summer night. Winry almost says something about it, but she steals a glance at Ed's face and sees him staring at the sky, quiet for a change and at peace. She doesn't want to break the spell.

In twenty-five minutes, he says something about the air pressure being just right, when it's late and a little cool like this. She agrees. He wonders why he's having so much trouble dealing with what should be a comfortable silence, and she wonders why she can't think of a single damned thing to tell him.

Finally, after too long and not long enough, Al comes back outside and calls them in ("The mosquitoes are gonna eat you guys up otherwise!").

The feeling of his hand on hers lingers.


	7. glitter

**prompt: glitter**

* * *

Mischief hides in the blue of her eyes, glittering with a secret she won't tell. Ed considers the way that she teases him and his brother (well deserved; they usually tease her _first_), and thinks that she's truly at her most dangerous when she gets like this.

It must be because otherwise, she is the very picture of angelic: pale, lightly freckled skin and pretty blonde hair and a sweet, pink mouth. Her brand of devious is the worst kind, not upfront like his, but hidden out of view and dripping like honey when it does come out.

Ed thinks that particular kind is the also the most fun, the most unpredictable, and he know Al would agree -for there come the jokes, the sarcasm, the sharp wit, and they are only too glad to play fight back.


End file.
